MARSH HAWK 91 



spot would see it instantly, alight and eat it. They did tliis on several 

 occasions. I believe this well illustrates the power of the eyesight when a 

 foraging Marsh Hawk sails low over a meadow searching for held mice. 

 Small chance a moving body has of escaping the keen eye ! 



Voice. — The several notes of the marsh hawk have been variously 

 interpreted by different writers. Mr. Forbush (1927) has made a 

 choice collection of these, which I quote with authorities : 



Alarm call of male, "a shrill screaming cha-chOrCha'Cha-cha-cha" (Florence 

 M. Bailey) ; female, "a prolonged shriek — kee, kee, kee, kee, kee, kee, kee, kee"; 

 or "check-eck, check-eck, check-eck, check-eck, check-eck, check-eck" (Bailey) ; 

 "a series of syllables like kuh! kuh! kuh! repeated very fast and quite a number 

 of times without pause" (H. O. Green) ; female when disturbed at nest, a 

 flicker-like call sounding like p6-ter p^-ter p^-ter; another call stee-whit-a-xohit- 

 a- whit, also pee pee pee repeated fifteen to twenty times and swit, wat, wat, 

 the notes sometimes run together like a whinny (C. W. Townsend) ; rather 

 weak nasal whistle, also a sort of chuckle; at nest with eggs quip-quip-quip- 

 quip-quip; male at times has a complaining, scolding note like chu-chu-chu or 

 choo-choo-choo, quite unlike tlie usual short, weak but sharp whistle of the 

 bird — this when nesting-area is invaded. The male's voice is deeper, fuller, 

 and heavier than the female's higlier-keyed note (J. A. Farley). 



Field marks. — The adult male is the whitest of any of our com- 

 mon hawks, with black wing tips. In all plumages, the white rump 

 is conspicuous. The everglade kite, Harris's hawk, and the rough- 

 legged hawk all have similar white patches; the first two have com- 

 paratively restricted habitats in the South and have other field 

 marks ; the rough-legged hawk is a more heavily built bird and has 

 the white mainly on the tail instead of on the rump (upper tail 

 coverts) . At any reasonable distance the marsh hawk can be recog- 

 nized by its slender form, its long slim tail, and its long wings, 

 held at an upward angle except when soaring. Its manner of flight, 

 described above, is distinctive. 



Fall. — Late in August or early in September the fall migration 

 begins in New England. Mr. Forbush (1927) says: "The principal 

 migration here seems to move along the coastal plain. Many marsh 

 hawks coming south through the region below Boston follow down 

 the west side of Buzzards Bay and then turn westward across 

 Narragansett Bay and along the coasts of Rhode Island and Con- 

 necticut." 



By the middle of November most of these hawks have left the 

 northern parts of their range, though they linger on the way as long 

 as they can find enough mice and small birds to hunt. Audubon 

 (1840) writes: "I have observed it in our western prairies in autumn 

 moving in flocks of twenty, thirty, or even as many as forty indi- 

 viduals, and appearing to be migrating, as they passed along at a 

 height of fifty or sixty yards, without paying any attention to the 

 objects below ; but on all these occasions I could never find that they 



